The present invention relates to an adhesive dispensing apparatus for dispensing an adhesive to a bundle of sheets and an image forming apparatus provided with the adhesive dispensing apparatus.
In general, a sheet processing apparatus such as a finisher equipped in a binding apparatus or image forming apparatus is able to perform a process of stitching a bundle of sheets after the sheets are bound in a bundle, and a process of dispensing an adhesive such as glue on an edge of a bundle of sheets.
In such a process of dispensing an adhesive, the adhesive is dispensed on an edge of the bundle, and the bundle is transported in a direction along the edge thereof. Then, the sheet bundle is moved relative to a cover sheet in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction, so that the cover sheet is attached to the edge of the bundle with the adhesive dispensed thereon (refer to Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-168264).
When the sheet bundle is transported in the direction along the edge of the sheet bundle after the adhesive is dispensed thereto, the edge of the sheet bundle may contact various members such as a wall of a transport path. In such a case, if the sheet bundle is transported in a skew, or an excessive amount of the adhesive is dispensed to the edge of the sheet bundle, the adhesive dispensed to the edge of the sheet bundle may be scraped off. If the adhesive is scraped off from the edge of the sheet bundle during the transportation, the sheet bundle may not be bound well or the cover sheet may not be attached to the sheet bundle. Also, if the adhesive sticks to a wall of a transport path, it is difficult to transport a subsequent sheet bundle.
To solve such problems, in a conventional apparatus, a transport path is structured such that an edge of a sheet bundle is away from a wall thereof with a sufficient distance, or a special device is provided for strictly controlling an amount of an adhesive. Accordingly, such an apparatus tends to be large and high cost.
In view of the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to provide an adhesive dispensing apparatus and an image forming apparatus with a compact size and low cost, in which an adhesive is not scraped off when a sheet bundle is transported after the adhesive is dispensed thereto, so that a cover sheet is securely attached to the sheet bundle.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.